Econ-atrocity: Israeli Land Theft

[Andrew Page <programs at populareconomics.org>]

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Israeli Land Theft and Quiet Ethnic Cleansing
By Jonathan Elsberg, CPE Staff Economist

For the last year, the Israeli government has been seizing Palestinian land
in the West Bank in order to construct a barrier system that goes by a
variety of names. The Israeli government and most of the media refer to it
as the "security fence," while opponents to the project normally call it
the "apartheid wall." The wall is creating economic ruin for Palestinians;
whether that means security for Israelis is less clear.

The system includes a concrete wall, deep trenches, military roadways and
razor-wire fences covering an area up to 100 meters (330 feet) wide. In
most places the wall itself is twice as tall as the infamous Berlin Wall,
and in some it will be over five times as tall! The wall system is planned
to run hundreds of kilometers and is advertised by the Israeli government
as separating the West Bank from Israel, in order to improve Israeli
security. The total cost is likely to be well over $1 billion, some of
which will be paid by the United States.

However, the rhetoric of security is undermined by the reality of the
wall's construction. Only rarely does the wall actually run along the
"Green Line" border between Israel and the West Bank. Instead, it winds its
way through the West Bank, weaving a path that puts as much land as
possible on the Israeli side while keeping as many Palestinians as possible
on the other. The wall also takes curious detours whenever this enables one
of Israel's illegal colonial settlements to be incorporated inside the new,
de facto, border.

New plans revealed in March will extend the wall through the eastern West
Bank, creating two giant ghetto-prisons confining the majority of the West
Bank's Palestinian population into areas covering only 45% of their
territory, which Israel has illegally occupied since 1967.

For a map of the region see:
[Source: Gush Shalom <http://www.gush-shalom.org/thewall/images/map1_eng.gif>]

The result on the ground has been catastrophic for ordinary Palestinians.
The wall separates townspeople from the farmland they work for a living,
and from their neighbors on whom they rely for everyday commercial trade
and social contact. The town of Qalqilya has been almost completely
encircled by the wall, converting it from a food exporter into a food
importer. The mayor of Qaffin bemoans that his town is losing $4 million in
production as the wall eliminates access to 60% of the town's land.
Additionally, construction of the wall will destroy Qaffin's only
agricultural well, making irrigation of their remaining land impossible.

The most extreme case may be the village of Mas'ha, which is losing 98% of
its land to the wall! Several family homes are also targeted for
destruction to pave the way for the wall, a common occurrence along the
construction path. Hundreds of international and Israeli peace activists
have joined the villagers in establishing a "peace camp" to oppose the wall.

The odds are against them. Palestinians understand the real purpose behind
the wall - to turn independent farmers into beggars in their own homes, so
impossibly poor that they have no choice other than leaving Palestine
altogether. That is why the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom calls it the
"transfer wall." "Transfer" is the Israeli term for the ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians, a policy that is promoted by many in Israel's coalition
government.

If the Israeli government persists in its creation of this wall, the "Road
Map" to peace released by President Bush cannot possibly lead towards that
hoped-for goal. It will become yet another dusty document in the bin of
wasted efforts, while hopes for peace and justice are dashed against the
concrete reality of permanent military occupation.

Sources and further information:

The Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON) 'Apartheid Wall
Campaign' <http://www.pengon.org/wall/wall.html>.

Israeli peace group Gush Shalom's wall campaign
<http://www.gush-shalom.org/thewall/index.html>.

'The "Separation Wall": "Security" as Pretext for Annexation and Theft of
Land,' Between the Lines, December 2002
<http://www.between-lines.org/archives/2002/dec/Separation_Wall.htm>.

'Wall fears grip West Bank,' by Martin Asser, BBC News Online, 17 April
2003 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2930785.stm>.

'Palestinian Sources Condemn Israeli Plans to Move Security Fence,' BBC
Monitoring, 29 March 2003.

'Walling them in,' The Economist, 29 March 2003.

Activists with the International Solidarity Movement have written numerous
accounts of the wall and its effects on Palestinians. Many of their
writings can be found at <http://www.palsolidarity.org/>.

© 2003 Center for Popular Economics

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